05-19-2014, 03:33 PM
quote:No idea if those cats were ever allowed to be free, although you do say never.
Originally posted by Obie
I have a neighbor who has 2 indoor cats that are never outside.They seem to be pretty happy with their existence and they have never been exposed to all the dangers of roaming free !
Cats that were born free do not take to confinement. I have two (spayed) Hawaii born cats who like to be both inside and outside. It's a beautiful thing to see their joy in exploring the landscape or just enjoying the deck (which they couldn't if they were indoor cats).
If they are inside of their own volition, all is well. If they are locked in, they completely freak out. They literally bounce off walls chasing each other. They divebomb me if I am sleeping. They meow constantly. Any door that is opened has to be guarded or they'll run out.
It was after I moved them the first time to a new house, that they experienced being shut in while they acclimated. That made some kind of deep impression on them, because any time all the doors are shut and the cat door is shut, their nerves go on full trauma alert.
Outdoor life is dangerous, but they won't be shut in. I tried it for a month on my last move. It was horrible for all involved.
Luckily for me, I have enough property that they stay on my property and don't get shot by crotchety old guys who can't understand cat nature or don't wish to.
quote:Mine certainly do eat rats, and they are picky eaters, so I don't know why ferals would not. I know how much of the rat they eat, as one of them likes to eat them in her safe place, the bedroom. She eats it all but the head, the liver, and the tail, and she cleans the liver good.
Unless the feral's that I see are ingesting mice and rats complete with bones I am not seeing them eating rodents.
She stalks birds all the time, because they are a challenge, but she rarely catches one before it flies away. Honestly, I have hundreds or thousands of mynah birds feeding on the lawn here, so it doesn't bother me if she gets one. They are pests in their own way.
The chickens she leaves well alone. She knows better. I've never found a chicken partly eaten, ever, not even by a feral.
I don't have any great love for feral cats. They are mostly quite mean. I feel pity for them, eking out an existence that barely works, as they seem to crave domestic cat food and the ones around me stalk cat dishes more than birds. They cause me all sorts of grief, but yet I would never kill one. Kill with blood lust or kill humanely in your eyes, it's still killing a highly intelligent animal.
Ferals don't live that long, so it's hard for me to understand why a neutered feral cat is such a problem. Agree that cat reproduction unchecked is the problem. Neutering male ferals should cut down on that, along with education and low cost spay clinics or coupons.